The End

Well well well. Here I am, sitting in my house in Clemmons North Carolina, getting ready to head back to Elon later today. Everyone made it home safe and sound. I do already miss London and Flat D, but its great to be home and see everyone!

Thanks for reading, but now I can't wait to hear how your semesters were!

The last few days

Wow. I can't beleive this is it. We're mostly packed in Flat D and have been slowly but surely cleaning up everything; this sure is a process. For the past few days I've been taking it kind of slow actually. Friday I did some shopping and went out for the 'best pad thai in London' according to Megan and Amanda (it was pretty good). Yesterday I went back to Hampstead with Megan and we spent the afternoon sitting on top of the hill overlooking the city reflecting on life. Then last night we said our final goodbye to London. We took the #6 bus down Edgeware and Oxford Street then we got off at Piccadilly and walked to Trafalger and then ran down Whitehall so we could be on Westminister bridge as Big Ben chimed for midnight. We stood on the bridge for a bit and then said goodbye to London. It was bittersweet, as the whole ending experience has been.

Its so hard to sit here and think about everything that we've done this semester. I have learned so much and feel that I've grown up a lot as well. I have fallen in love with London and everything it has to offer. I have gotten to know the most amazing group of people and will miss them a lot. But, its time to come home. I am content with what I have accomplished and am ready to come back to the good 'ol US of A. See you all soon!! We get into Raleigh around 2:30 tomorrow so I'll update the blog one last time to let you all know we made it back safely .

That's sooo cool!

Today I found myself saying "thats so cool" so many times. This morning Sam, Natalie, Kinsey, Megan and I did the London eye: a massive Ferris wheel that has capsules that hold up to 20 people. I've seen really long lines so I was prepared for a wait, but we practically walked right up and into our capsule. The ride takes a half hour and takes you up 135 meteres. The views we got of London were incredible. I took about a billion pictures of Parliament and the Thames. I was glad that we did this when we did because it was nice to be able to see everything we have done. Afterward we walked over to Chinatown for a great lunch and then I bought some postcards. I got back to an empty flat and decided to take advantage of the quiet and started packing. I am actually mostly done, which makes me equally relieved and sad. I have moments where I'm really ready to come home, then other times where I can't imagine not being in London. But ready or not Monday is coming.

This evening was fun because we were all in silly moods. Natalie and I danced to HSM songs, which is always fun and then we made a new creation dubbed "big dessert." Natalie thought it'd be fun to mix hot chocolate and ice cream and so we made a big ol batch for everyone. It was quite tasty. Then Jordan, Kinsey, Sam, Natalie, Amanda and I went to The Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This thing is a pretty big deal; Jordan had to apply to get us tickets 2 months ago and she could only get tickets for 6 of us. This Ceremony is done every night at the Tower and has been done this same way since the 1800s some time. We got led in by a yeoman, one of the resident guards at the Tower and he told us some of the history of the Tower of London and the ceremony and explained what would happen.

First the head yeoman marched over with his lantern and the keys to where these four guards were (all decked out in their bear skinned hats and red coats). Then they all march down to this one gate to lock it and on their way back another guard who has appeared out of nowhere points his gun at them and screams "HALT" and they do so. Then they do this question and answer thing where the head yeoman tells the guy with the gun that he has the queen's keys so he best not shoot. Then they walk through this gate and we have to run after them. We then reassembled in front of this staircase where there are more guards. They then look at each other and do some stomping things then at 10 they start talking again and it ends with someone yelling "God save Queen Elizabeth" and we all yell "Amen" and then one of them plays the trumpet while the head yeoman takes the keys away and the guards all go back to bed. The whole thing lasts around 30 minutes. It was really official and even though I didn't understand all of it, I really enjoyed being there and being part of the tradition.

Adventures!!

Well we are now officially done. No more classes and free time in London has been incredible. I can't beleive how little time is left though. It seems like just yesterday I was freaking out about coming here and now I'm freaking out about coming home. I'm so excited to see everyone and be back home, but its scary to leave this city I have come to love so much.

Sunday was an adventure day, which is when Zane, Megan and I go to random places doing random things and act silly. We tried to go to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, but we couldn't exactly find anyone speaking so we thought it'd be funny to recite the preamble to the constitution. It was. We then took a bus to Trafalgar Square because we had seen these old buses pick up there. We waited for a while and then were so excited to get one one before we realized that it couldn't go anywhere because there was an accident and traffic was all backed up. But at least we got on the bus and took some pictures. We then wandered over to Covent Garden market for a bit. That evening I had a Thai food date with Natalie and it was fabulous.

Monday was a slower day. I went out in the morning for a walk down to the canals because we'd heard of a "Canal Cavalcade" going on because of the bank holiday. A bunch of boats had come to the area of the canal by Paddington (a 15 minute walk from the flats) and there were vendors selling food, activities for children and lots of fun food. I can't beleive that we live in such a fun and neat little neighborhood. That afternoon Amanda and I hiked up Primrose Hill, a park that has a pretty view of the city before heading over to Westminister Abbey for Evensong, a daily service where the boy's choir sings. I absolutely loved it. The service was really nice and the choir was incredible.

Yesterday was the last day of classes! To celebrate a group of our flat and associates (Sam, Zane and Courtney) went to Texas Embassy, a Mexican restaurant that my dad suggested to me. It was a really nice way to end the semester and celebrate Cindo De Mayo. Afterward we came back to the flats and realized we had forgotten to take pictures on the lion statues at Trafalger Square. So of course Zane, Megan and I turned that into and adventure. We first took a bus up to Hampstead Heath, a gigantic park that has a hill overlooking the city. I've been a few times, but never at night and it was amazing. We looked over the skyline lit up and talked forever. After a while we came down and took a bus to Tafalger and climbed up the lions. If you've never seen these things they are quite large and pretty high off the ground so I didn't really climb up, it was more like Zane pulling us up. We hung out there for a while looking at Big Ben all lit up too. It was such a pretty night.

Today was our final adventure day because Zane is leaving tomorrow. We spent the afternoon sitting under a tree in Regent's park, talking and laughing and talking some more. I didn't realize how long we'd been there but it was nice to spend time just relaxing. On our way back we decided to grab a bus and take it to the end: Willesden Bus Garage. We always hear of this place when they announce it on the bus (6 to Willesedn Bus Garage, and they pronounce garage funny) and so we wanted to see what it was all about. It wasn't all that exciting, but at least we can say we've done it.

Tonight we're gonna hang out and pretend that we aren't leaving so soon. With Zane leaving tomorrow the reality is going to really set in. Can't wait to see you all though, I really do miss everyone so much!

Greenwhich and Brighton!

Its been a busy couple of days, but really really fun ones. Yesterday I went back to Greenwhich with Zane and Natalie. I had been before several times with our GST class, but the two of them aren't in that class and wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I was excited to play tour guide and see everything again. We got out there just int time for a fabulous lunch at the market. I had some kind of Turkish pizza wrap thing which was excellent; I have fallen in love with market food 'cause it is always so cheap and good but there is so much variety. We spent the rest of the day doing the musueumy stuff. We went up the Royal Observatory and stood in two hemispheres, then we went over to the Planetarium which we hadn't done with class. It was really interactive and so we played and learned a lot! The weather was beautiful as we walked down the massive hill towards the Queens House and Maritime Museum. We spent some time there before heading over to the Painted Hall and Chapel, admiring the massive hall. Instead of taking the DLR/tube back we opted on taking a boat cruise down the Thames back to Westminster. It was really cool, literally and figuratively.

Today a group of us went to Brighton, a small coastal town about an hour train ride away. As we got out of the train and started walking into the town we saw a parade,a great omen for the day. A bunch of schools had dressed up or decorated themselves with different themes (Chinese dragons, a Flintstones group) and were marching down the street. We don't really know what it was for, but it was still fun. We had a quick lunch at a pub and then headed to the beach to take a nap. The beaches at Brighton are pebble beaches, much different from the N.C. coast, but its actually much more comfortable than you might think. After laying out for a while we headed over to the Brighton Pier to see what we could find to occupy ourselves. Zane and I found roller coasters and were quite happy. There was this one ride that hoisted you up a billion feet about the water and then turned you into a pendulum, it was so much fun! We rode a few rides and ate some pier food and then went back to the beach again. In an attempt to entertain ourselves before dinner time we buried a bottle in the rocks and then threw more rocks at it to try to knock it down. We looked like idiots, I'm sure, but we were laughing so it was good. That was the general theme of Brighton, for me. We didn't really do all that much, but we were laughing pretty much all day so it was really fun. However, while we were laying out I did get pretty sunburnt which always makes me tired, so its going to be an early night.

The final countdown

So classes are effectively over. We have two exams on Tuesday, but they’re not going to be all that difficult and we have plenty of time to study. This means that from now until the time we leave (next Monday) is going to be filled with lots of errands and outings, trying to get everything on our proverbial “London-lists” done. I’m excited.

Tuesday night, after a long day of class, a bunch of people from our program went to go see Romeo and Juliet. But of course we weren’t just going to go to any old theater and sit in nice comfortable seats, no. We got standing tickets, at the Globe! We got there early enough and so we were standing right on the edge of the stage and it was incredible. The production was really good, not so sure how much I liked Juliet, but everyone else was phenomenal, but what I liked the best was seeing how they used the theater. The actors were constantly running up and down the stairs, through the crowd of ‘groundlings’, as we were called, and the scene changes were cool because there aren’t any curtains or things like that so the actors would pass each other carrying props out during the change. It was a long time to be standing, but totally worth it.

On Wednesday we went and saw our last play for theater class, Tusk Tusk. This play was written by a 21 year old (when she was 19) and has three children whose mother leaves them because she is mentally ill and they must fend for themselves. It sounds a little dreary, but this was one of my favorite plays we’ve seen thus far. The actors were all very young but they were so incredibly good, and the playwright was in the audience and watching her was really fun.

Yesterday our GST class spent the morning on the deck of the HMS Belfast, a British battleship that rests in the Thames right downstream from Tower Bridge. It was a nice last outing, which have been my favorite parts of this class. We then finished up sociology presentations which was the best feeling in the world. To celebrate the end of classes some of us stayed in to write a remix of “I’m on a boat.” We recorded our new version, “I’m on a tube,” and performed it for everyone. Yeah I bet you wish you were as cool as us. But now I must go because we’re running off to Greenwhich for the day!

Here Here, my honourable good friend

Today has been rainy and a bit chilly, a perfect day to go watch the Brits argue at Parliament! Its really dorky but I was so excited to have the chance to do this after learning all about British politics in AP Gov't (and still remembering some of it), I love the political process, and there were people in fancy wigs, whats not to love?!

We got to Parliament and went through their cool security where we got a badge with our picture on it, but you were looking away from the camera so its a weird picture. Then we went and waited in the grand hall which we realized later was where many great leaders, like Winston Churchill, have laid in state after they've died. After waiting for a bit we were brought up these stairs into another room to wait. This room had some statues along the wall and after a few minutes we noticed some people gathering around one of the statues. Pretty soon one of the women started yelling about "100 years ago today (someone) chained themselves to this statue to protest for woman's rights. Today we want the government to listen to us about climate change" or something like that. Then they started chanting "Deeds not words" over and over. She repeated her speech a few more times as the cops started to gather. Turns out these four people had super-glued themselves to one another and were stuck around the statue. The police weren't happy about the situation but couldn't remove the protesters so they did the next best thing, removed us. So we were brought back into the main hall and around some corridors and out into a small courtyard and then led up the stairs into the visitor's gallery.

We were watching the House of Commons, which is technically the lower house in the British Parliment, but they are the ones that are elected (unlike the House of Lords who are appointed) and they actually do all the stuff. We arrived at the end of a debate on putting in new prisons, and I didn't really understand a lot of it. But then the Secretary of State came in to give a report on the Swine Flu. He talked about what they knew thus far, and then they debated for a while about pandemic preparedness and talked about stockpiling face masks. It was really neat to hear about something thats been in the news and to hear how they discussed it. Next came a debate on the budget, which is when it got really good. I didn't really understand exactly what they were talking about (something about tarrifs on household energy) but I did understand how awesome the arguments were. They were interrupting the speaker guy and then basically insulting him and he would go right back at em. It was really funny at points, but also really exciting to see politics at work right there (yeah I know I"m a dork). Junior year I take a class in January that goes to D.C. so now I really can't wait to go sit in on a House or Senate debate and compare it to this; I doubt it will be as fun though. Americans should definitely adopt the wig thing.

Small Adventures

Well Well it has been a weekend of small adventures, trying to do everything before we have to leave this glorious city.

Thursday Jordan and I did have a successful movie premiere experience; if you consider success being trampled by a billion screaming teenage girls. We were at a Hannah Montana premiere, it was to be expected right? But it was really fun, we saw Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, some famous British soap star named Tom, the British girl from HSM3 and Demi Lavato. It was complete madness, but I'm glad that we went. Friday I spent the day being a sociologist hanging out in Camden. Zane and I saw two very different sides of the burrough and it was quite useful for our research.

Saturday I was supposed to go to Brighton but woke up feeling not so good and the weather didn't look all that good and I had tons of work to do. So I ended up staying here, getting tons of work done; but after sitting inside and doing work all day Zane, Megan and I needed to get out. We had the grand idea of riding the circle line of the tube, in the circle. But we couldn't just get on and ride, oh no. At each stop we got out and changed tube cars and took a picture of the station. We are so cool I bet you're all jealous.

Then today was the London marathon! 35,000 people running 26 miles through London, some of them dressed in fun costumes but all of them being generally amazing; of course we had to go and watch! We found a spot and stood there for about 2 hours cheering and yelling out names and listening to the same three songs in a loop (Build me up buttercup, final countdown and some other pump up song they always play at football games). It was so much fun! We saw the serious runners and that was really cool, but the people dressed as superman or wounder woman or carrots or spider man, batman, robin, clowns, bumblebees etc etc. were the most fun!

Tonight I've just been hanging around the flat, talking to people and not doing work. Its been glorious. Tomorrow we're going to hopefully go watch a session of Parliament and then finish up the papers and stuff for the week. How crazy is it that I only have 3 days of classes left? 3!! I like that it means less class, but don't like that it means leaving London....

A sweet surprise

Yesterday, sadly, was the last day at Winton where I have spent the semester hanging out with the most fun 3/4 students and learning so much! I was particularly excited about this day because we were going on a trip to a farm; and even though the trip was really really fun it was a different sort of day than I was used to. Usually I am in the classroom all day, working with small groups of students or observing the lessons. But in the morning Ms. Collins asked me to step outside and work on cutting out some stuff for their new display board. After a bit we combined part of our class with another class and set off for the farm. I work at a daycare in the summer and we take weekly field trips with around 40 kids, 5 adults and we're in Clemmons and even that is stressful. We had about 2 kids, 3 adults and we had to take a bus and then walk around London, but surprisingly enough it was fine! The kids were so well behaved and are used to using the public transport so it was actually a really fun experience. The farm that we went to was in the middle of a city block, which was another new one for me, but the kids loved it. They got to pet the animals and feed some of them; there was this one little boy who was really scared at the beginning and didn't want to go anywhere near the animals and by the end he was running up to me with wide eyes, so excited about the chick he had just seen or the cow he touched. Moments like this make me so happy to be a teacher!

In the afternoon I was again banished to the hallway to laminate and cut out the papers I'd cut in the morning. I figured something was up and it was a really good look into the real life of a teacher. At the end of the day, after the cutest attempt at being stealth I've ever seen, the students brought me into the classroom and presented me with a wonderful card and some chocolate. They had each drawn a picture of themselves and written me a goodbye note, and then they came and gave me hugs. It was so adorable, and worth the tedious cutting! I left them with my email address and hope we can stay in touch, and if they send me a picture I"ll make sure and share.

Today will hopefully be fantastic. Jordan and I are going to Leister Square to stalk out the Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds movie premiere. I know, dorky right. But I hear that the Jonas Brothers might be there and that makes me turn into the giddy ten year old girl I am. I'll be sure and update if there are any good star sightings!

Praha!

I had such an incredible weekend in Prague. It was nice to get away from London, go out on my own a bit and see Michelle! Prague is very different from London, and so beautiful and having my own personal tour guide made it that much better.

I got in on Friday afternoon and after a wonderful reunion with Michelle we dropped by stuff out in her dorm (the top two floors of a hotel, so cool) and ventured out into the rain for some initial sight seeing. We walked around the Vltava, the river that runs through Prague, over the the Charles Bridge and around a bit. We grabbed dinner at a pub and I had authentic Czech food and we reminisced about high school, so fun! We decided to go back to the dorm after this because it was really gross outside, and we actually got to skype with our friends back home which was so much fun!

Saturday was a full day of sightseeing. We took the tram up to the castle complex and saw St. Vitus Cathedral. Wow. It was so tall and ominous looking, but inside it was absolutely beautiful. I loved hearing all the fun little tidbits Michelle had learned about this place from her classes. We then wandered around the castle, which doesn't look like the castles around here but it was still cool, and then we hung out by this wall that had a phenomenal view of the city. After having some deep conversation we went down to Wallenstein Palace which is the current home of the senate and has a garden with peacocks! It was really pretty and green on a gray day. After a fabulous lunch we went to the Church of the Bambino. That's not actually what the church is called, but inside there is a wax Jesus that people from around the world come to worship and make little outfits for. It was bizarre. We went upstairs and got to see a selection of Jesus' clothes and it was crazy how different and detailed these things were. Then Michelle took me to the Church of our Lady of the Snow which is one of her favorite places because of how quiet it is even with its proximity to a busy square. We got to experience complete silence for a few minutes before a tour group came in and that was nice. We took a quick look at the markets at Wencelas and Old Town Square before going back to her dorm to make chicken noodle soup and hang out for the night.

Sunday we woke up late to beautiful sunlight shining in the window, it was going to be a good day! We started by going paddle boating on the Vltava. It was so much fun to be out there on the river, and we got to stop and soak up the sun which was so relaxing. Aaah so good. Then we walked back over to Old Town Square to get me some souvenirs, and Michelle found some stuff too so it was good. We walked through the Jewish Quarter, seeing some synagogues, before heading up to Letna Park. This park is up on a big hill and has a beautiful view of Prague and also has several Beer Gardens, which are exactly what they sound like, outdoor places to drink beer. We went to one of Michelle's favorites and spent the afternoon talking, catching up and laughing. I love my friend. We grabbed dinner at a pizza place and then hung out at the dorm. I left early Monday morning and got back to London safe and sound.

I'm so glad that I went to Prague. I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for Michelle, but I really loved seeing the city. The buildings reminded me a lot of Italy and it was really pretty and fun. But what I loved the most was catching up with Michelle and comparing our experiences abroad. We have a lot in common and had so much to talk about! Now I'm just trying to slow down time..so little time left!

Windsor and Wednesday

On Monday I had a royally fun day. Kinsey, Natalie, Jordan and I went to Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Queen. I really like castles, royalty and chivalry and so I was excited about being there, but I also learned a lot which was a pleasant surprise that actually added to the day.

We got to Paddington to catch our train, and found out that it was going to be a lot cheaper than we thought, which is always exciting. The train only took around 30 minutes, and we even had to change once. We got to the castle, bought our tickets, went through security, and grabbed our audio tour. We walked around the grounds for a bit, enjoying the fabulous weather and the beauty of the castle. Then we went inside and saw a really cool dollhouse thing, it actually has running water and electricity which is Craazy. Then we wandered through an exhibit on Henry VIII, who the more I learn about the more I love. Then we started our tour through the state apartments. They were so beautiful and ornate, and the audio tour gave us lots of fun facts about each room. It also talked about this really cool thing called the Royal Order of the Garter. Look it up, I'm now obsessed. After walking around the apartments we grabbed a quick lunch and then went back in to see St. George's chapel. It was really cool and related a lot to the Order of the Garter, and its also where Henry VIII is buried. It was so cool to see that, and Kinsey was really excited. Before heading back, we walked over to Eton College. I had never heard of this place, but it looks a lot like Elon, which made us all really happy. We found a big green field and some cool buildings but it wasn't as cool as our Elon.

Before going into St. George's we saw that the Queen's Standard flag was flying above Windsor, meaning she was in the castle. We also found out that she usually visits St. George's on Easter because it is where her parents are buried. It made me giddy to think about her being so close. I absolutely love the idea of royalty and chivalry and so being at Windsor Castle at the same time as the Queen was really cool.

Tuesday was just a day of class. Our sociology class is starting a project where we break up in pairs and study Burroughs so Zane and I are going to be hanging out in Camden for a bit, which I think will be fun. Our theater class also went to the Globe theater and we bought tickets to see Romeo and Juliet next week which will be really fun. Then today was Wednesday, the day of no class. I got up and did some work this morning but then Megan and I decided that we wanted to go somewhere this afternoon and since Zane needed his haircut he decided to come with us. We started out by riding a bus to Trafalgar Square, which took forever because of traffic but we were in giggly moods so it was fun. We then went to St. Martens in the Fields, a church off of Trafalgar. It reminded me of the Old North Church, but then when we went to find the Crypt we found a restaurant, on top of the graves! It was interesting, but I got to take the elevator up to the street that I see all the time so it was a successful trip. We then got Zane's hair cut at the same place I got mine done and our plan was to go to another cathedral, but Megan had a better idea, lets walk over Tower Bridge. It took us a bit to get there, a tube ride, some walking and a few buses (we were in fun moods so we didn't really pay much attention to where we were going), but we got there eventually. Going up and walking over this infamous symbol of London was actually really really cool now that I think about it. We got some cool views of the Thames and the surrounding sights, and learned a lot about the bridge itself. But what makes it even better is that now whenever I see pictures of the bridge I can say, "yeah, I've walked around up there."

Its been a really good past couple of days, but this weekend I'm going to visit my friend Michelle in prauge!! I can't wait to see her and hang out in Europe, its going to be awesome : )

Easter in London

Happy Easter everyone! I didn’t really expect this before coming here, but Easter is a really big holiday over here. The schools are all out for a break and a lot of people go on vacation, that sort of thing.

I was really sad about missing Easter Sunday at my home church, but I figured Westminster Abbey would be an okay substitute. I got there sort of late (darn planned engineering works shut down half the tube system) and so I was in the back sitting not even on a seat but on the ledge of some monument off to the side, but even from that view I knew I was in a beautiful place. As the first song started I was brought to tears, not only because it was so beautiful but also because it was a hymn that I knew Clemmons Presbyterian would be singing in a few hours. The service was really moving and I loved being there.

Our flat had made plans for the afternoon to go to Hyde Park because someone read an article about a fun Easter tradition. Rollerblades are very popular in Hyde Park, but on Easter they all congregate and dress up as bunnies! We were all so excited, I was even so excited I left the flat with one brown shoe and one black shoe (I did go back and change)! We got to the park just in time to snap some pictures and see the bunnies take off on their journey around the park. It was so funny to see grown men and women with bunny ears or dressed up as carrots; my favorite was the gang of chicks with yellow leotards and wigs. We then wandered around the park, taking Easter portraits with the pretty flowers. We even got a couple of flat pictures-with all 8 of us! It is rare that we are all together and I loved spending time with these incredible girls that I have grown to love so much.

We got back to the flats and almost immediately began preparations for our flat dinner! We had been talking about doing a special Easter dinner for a while but didn’t actually plan it until yesterday. It was incredible! We pulled off a fabulous meal of ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes (homemade), mac and cheese, corn, Caesar salad, fruit salad and bread and then brownies for dessert. Look at all those food groups Mom. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had, not only because the food was so good but also because we all put it together. As Megan now loves to say, “We’re all in this together,” (side note, I’ve turned my flatmates into HSM loving monsters. Megan said she would never watch them ever and now she loves quoting them).

It’s been a really great Easter; I didn’t realize how homesick I would be today, but spending such a great day with my lovely friends has really made me feel better. We’re still trying not to think about how much time we don’t have left, and days like today make me really really not want to know. Oh and I’ve posted pictures from today and other springtime adventures, enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008778&id=1401300102&l=bbe01bc42b

An Amazing Weekend

Four day weekends are back! Well, for most people anyways because they have finished their practicums. But I have decided to go a few extra times and so that is what I did Friday. It was the last day of their term and so the day was really chill and I spent most of it painting rainforest tribal symbols on faces, which was really fun. After practicum Jordan, Amanda, Kinsey, Natalie and I had a lovely night planned. We found a deal online where we could get dinner at a swanky restaurant and tickets to Spring Awakening! This was the first play we saw with our theater class, but since then it has moved to a bigger theater and is getting lots of publicity so I was so excited to see it again. It was INCREDIBLE! It was probably better than the first time I saw it and it was really really good then. After the show we walked over to Picadelly Circus, my new favorite place, to get Cinabon to take back to the flats. This was a great way to start my weekend!

Saturday was pretty boring. I did some work in the morning, but then met up with Jordan at Big Ben in the afternoon. We're trying to get pictures of Big Ben at every hour, on the hour so we can then make them into a clock (we're so artsy!). We met at 4, got that, and then wandered around waiting for 5. It was a gorgeous day and it was fun to walk around Parliment and down Whitehall. We even stopped at 10 Downing Street to say Hey! to Gorden Brown. Sunday was also pretty boring, I didn't actually ever leave the flats because it looked like rain, but that's London for ya.

Monday was a looooong day, but a really really great one. We had planned on going to Parliment, but they are in recess for Easter, so instead a group of us went to hang out in St. James park. It was so nice to chill and relax and breath in the fresh air. This was also necessary because a few of us (Megan, Casey, Amanda, Jordan, Bo and I) had a long night in store. We really wanted to watch UNC in the NCAA finals and there is a sports bar here in London that shows the games. So after seminar, a quick dinner, and a play (Dancing at Lughnasa; I really liked it and the theater was kind of cool), we headed over to Sports Cafe for the game. It started at 2:20 a.m. and finished around 5, and we loved every minute of it. It was so much fun to hang out with other Carolina fans (luckily no Michagen fans were present) and watch the same game I'm sure most of you were watching. Although we haven't exactly slept since then and will probably crash later today, it was all worth it to get to sing the Carolina fight song (Casey taught it to me) on a bus in London.

The miserables, fruit kebabs and art!

This week has been busy busy busy. We’ve been getting back into the routine of classes after spring break and that’s been going well. Everyone has also been trying to avoid looking at a calendar because we realize how little time we have left! There’s so much to do and so little time so we’re trying to pack a lot into our last few weeks and use our time efficiently.

Monday we had practicum, seminar and a play so my major accomplishment was surviving. Practicum was really fun because my kids were working on their rainforest photostories that they are sending to Barack Obama and Gordon Brown. It was fun to see how hard they had worked and the videos are all really cute. In the afternoon they made posters for a cake sale that they were having on Thursday. They are trying to raise 100 £ to buy 2 acres of rainforest, and again they were really excited and I loved watching them being creative. Tuesday was really boring just class all day.

Wednesday was a really good day. I got up early and went for a run, just for fun. I didn’t realize how close we were to Regent’s Park and it was so great to jog through this beautiful park on such a beautiful day. On the way back I took a turn too early and got kind of lost, but I found a bus map that helped me find my way home, and I got more exercise! Then I spent the afternoon hanging out in the flat, venturing out for some errands and doing some work. Then we went to see Les Miserables! I read the book in 10th grade and remembered enjoying it, but I also could remember really enjoying listening to the music back then and so I figured if something left that much of an impression it would be fun. I was blown away. The music was incredible, the staging was so cool, and the singing was the best I’ve ever heard. The Jean Val Jean character was my favorite, but anytime the whole chorus was on stage I was on the edge of my seat they were so captivating.

Today has been another adventure. We had class this morning and it was fine; we came back to the flats and had lunch and attempted to do some work. Then a group of us went to my practicum school for the cake sale! On Monday I was talking about how proud I was of my students and how it would be cool to go out and support them. Someone asked what they would be selling and I told them about the smoothies, cakes and fruit kebabs (pronounced kebaaabs, British accents are so cute). The fruit kebabs intrigued some people and since they weren’t doing anything else Natalie, Jordan, Kinsey and Sam came out with me to enjoy some great treats and support the rainforest! It was so fun to show them my school and I surprised my teacher and kids and I think they were really proud to show off their final product. And the kebabs were quite delicious. Afterwards I had randomly decided that I wanted to go to the National Portrait Gallery. I’m not exactly sure why, but I thought it sounded cool whenever the lady on the tube would announce it on the tube (they sometimes tell you what attractions are near each stop). Natalie and Kinsey, who are way more artsy than me came along and I am so glad they did. We wandered around the gallery, getting really excited about some portraits (William Shakespeare!), standing in awe at most of them and then joking around a bit. Going to an art gallery is usually not something I would do voluntarily in my free time, but it was a really fun and interesting experience.

This weekend is going to be another full one with lots of outings and adventures and I’m so excited! More to come next week.

We're baaack.

Well, we made it back to London...somehow. This morning was an adventure for sure. Our bus from Amalfi to Salerno was actually early so Jordan and I were able to jump on an earlier train to Naples which we thought would be a grand plan...WRONG. Even though the train left earlier it had more stops and so it actually got us in about 30 minutes after our original train would have. We were getting worried so we sprinted out of the train station and chased down a shuttle bus to the airport (looking back on it, we probably looked pretty funny). There was some traffic so when the bus stopped at the airport terminal we shot out of the back doors and ran to the check in desk all flustered. The lady was very nice, she told us to calm down, we still had four minutes. Our flight back, however, was not nearly as awesome as the flight over. Instead of being filled with pirates there was a group of rowdy, loud, obnoxious Italian teenagers. But once we boarded the plane Jordan and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

We're now sitting back in our flat, enjoying some quiet time. It will hopefully be a boring weekend because classes this week are going to be quite busy. I've posted some pictures of spring break on facebook here are the links if you want to check em out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007640&id=1401300102&l=7f3e75c603
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007789&id=1401300102&l=f516e707b5

A great ending to an AMAZING vacation.

Wow. Its hard to beleive that spring break is over, but it has been incredible. Spending a week perched on an Italian cliff side, climbing volcanoes, seeing ancient ruins, eating the best food of my life including gelatto every day! Life simply could not have been better. This vacation was different than we had expected, but that's okay because a lot of things turned out better than we could have hoped and we learned so much. It was an experience, as we like to say, and a great one.

For our last day we had planned on heading over to one of the closer towns and taking a boat into a cave that glows green; however, the seas were too rough and it was closed. We spent a moment being sad over that and then decided to continue into the next town, Positano, which is known for its beautiful houses and beaches. The morning was perfect, we caught all of our buses on time with little to no wait. We walked down a windy road in Positano, peeking into some of the clothing stores, and got to the beach before 12. That hasn't happend for us yet so we were happy. We hiked up our pant legs and headed to the ocean, which was freezing, but we didn't care because it was the Medditeranean (well not exactly, more like the Tyrrenian sea, but close enough). We took some pictures then found some rocks to sit on and soak up the sun for a bit. It was so relaxing to soak up the sun and listen to the waves. Aaah, so great. After a while we started getting hungrey and decided to head back to Amalfi for the afternoon. We hiked up a bunch of really steep steps and walked along the winding road to the bus stop, right as it pulled up. In London, thats not really a big deal but here...it was a miracle. We did have to wait a while in Priano for a bus to Amalfi, but the sun was shining so it was okay.

Our afternoon in Amalfi was fabulous. We ate a delicious lunch of pasta, salad and bread at this really great little restaurant where eating isn't just about the food its also about the atmosphere. We finished up our souvenir shopping and then found the perfect gelatto for our last day, and even upgraded to the big size because its vacation! We ate our gelatto by the water and then sat just watching the waves crash until it started raining. The rain shower only lasted a few minutes and when we came back outside we saw a fabulous double rainbow landing in the water. It was a beautiful way to end our time in Amalfi. Now we're spending a relaxing night here in the B&B because tomorrow will be an earlier morning so we can make sure and get to the airport in time.

I will miss Italy incredibly, but I know I will welcome the familiarity of London. The two places are so different and so this was a good amount of time away from London to remind me of why I love it so I can fully appreciate the little time I have left. We have a little over a month left in London! It seems like just yesterday I was getting on the plane and now its almost time to come home. As Pino would say in his Italian accent, "its incrediible, just incrediible."

Why I believe in karma

What a few days it has been. Sorry for no update yesterday (for those of you vigilantly following this exciting blog) but it was a long and sort of frustrating day. It started like any other day, a long bus ride down the mountain and then a walk to the train station. This time we were helped by these four Italian school girls who are learning English in school but only know "hello" and "what is your name," so they like listening to us. We got on a metro in Castllemare headed to Pompeii and we got there just fine. But we somehow missed the map station so we wandered from one end of Pompeii to the other getting completley lost before finding another entrance that had a map, which didn't really help very much. Pompeii is amazing, don't get me wrong, but its not signed very well and so we didn't have much of a clue what we were seeing. So, for future reference, pay a little extra and do the tour. After spending a few hours wandering the ruins and being amazed by how cool the preservation is, we had a nice lunch of pasta and then started the epic journey home. I'm not sure if I want to relive every detail, so to summarize: we walked forever to find tickets and then waited over an hour for a bus that never came so we had to find a train station to take us to an out of the way city so we could take a bus to get us to a city near here (Amalfi). Once we got to Amalfi we called Pino and he came and picked us up and that was so incredibly nice. Throughout all our troubles I must say that everyone has been so very helpful and friendly.

Today, however, was so much better! Our plan was to go to Capri, a beautiful island. To get there you must take a ferry from Sorrento; but of course we underestimated the time it would take to get to Sorrento because of a road closure. When we got the ferry port we realized that if we got on the next boat we'd only have an hour or so in Capri and that wasn't worth it, so we scrapped that plan and decided to spend the afternoon in Sorrento. Best decision ever. We shopped, ate some incredible pizza, shopped some more. We found a little shop that made custom-fit sandals in 5 minutes, so of course we got some! Then we went and found the best gelato yet and went to catch our bus back here. The bus could only take us as far as Priano because of the road construction, and then we were going to have to wait an hour before another bus to Amalfi was going to come. There was a couple from San Fransisco there in the same boat and we decided just to walk and see where the bus caught up with us. It was really nice walking along the cliff road with the sun setting at our backs and the beautiful water below. We talked to this couple and found out they have been backpacking around Europe since mid-Feburary and are getting ready to move into an apartment in Italy...how cool! So today was a really good day, which made up for the less than stellar ending to yesterday.

Okay one more story then I promise I'm done. The other day we were waiting for a bus (surprise surprise) and this man started talking to us. He was Italian but had been in London for some time years ago etc etc. This morning we actually saw him again and he helped us figure out what bus to get on. Then tonight we were hanging out in the little snack shop opposite the bus parking lot and he came in again! We talked to him some more and it was such a nice way to pass the time. Italians are so friendly and its nice to see a friendly and familiar face in a place like Amalfi. I will miss that when we go back to London.

Sometimes the journey is just as awesome as the destination

Well today has been another great day, but a different one. Jordan and I got up earlyish and had another fabulous breakfast (I know I mention this everyday, but its just the best way to start your day. two warm pastries, some citrus juice and a cappuccino! so good). Today instead of catching the bus in Amalfi, which is done by the coast we went up the mountain to Agerola to get our bus to Naples. Agerola is much different from Amalfi or Furore because you can't see the water and so its more of a mountain community than a coastal one, or at least thats what I gathered as Jordan and I sat at the bus stop. The bus ride to Naples took about an hour and a half, down the curvy mountain roads; but we got some different yet equally incredible views of snow capped mountains in the distance and the cute towns we passed through. We arrived in Naples and caught a metro that took us to Vesuvius...or so we thought.

Before going to Mt. Vesuvius we thought that we would spend the day hiking around some trails and get to the top. We knew it was going to be a workout but we were excited about this. However, we, probably stupidly, completley underestimated the enormity of this mountain. Holy crap it is steep and tall and massive. So we caught a shuttle up close to the crater and then hiked the 800 meters to the top. This was enough of a workout for me! As we slowly huffed our way to the top we could see the city of Naples sprawled out and the water and some more cliffs, but when we finally arrived at the top we then focused on the crater. It was just so cool to walk around it and peer in it. At one point we got off the trail and climbed up a little rock wall to get a better view, which was equally scary and amazing. It was just so weird to stand on top of this volcano and peer down at Pompeii in the distance and think that this large rock we were sitting on caused so much damage so far away. Because really thats all Mt. Vesuvius is, a big 'ol massively huge rock that seems quite harmless. We couldn't spend much time up on Mt. Vesuvius itself because we had to catch our shuttle back, but it was really fun to do and we had a good time.

The rest of our day was spent traveling back here. We caught the metro to Naples and then had to wait for a while in Naples for a bus. The bus that did come took us a different way back; OVER A MOUNTAIN. The mountains here aren't like the little ones we have in N.C. either...they are taller and steeper and the roads are so much curvier. But we did it, and it was incredibly scary and exhilarating. Jordan and I were talking about how much time we spend traveling and realized that, while it might seem annoying because proportionally we do much more traveling than we do actual sight-seeing. But it provides for the much needed down-time and keeps us from being completley exhausted because, after all this is our break!

Whats that? I dunno, lets check it out.

Today we had another low-key but awesome day. I woke up before Jordan and spent a few minutes sitting on our balcony, taking in all the sights. Its still hard to beleive how incredible this place is. I was talking to my friend Michelle tonight and she summed up the beauty of Italy perfectly. She said, "I think God potentially made Italy just so He could be like "yeah heaven's better than this" and we could be like: "showoff." haha I love her and Italy.

Pino took us down to Amalfi again this morning after another fabulous breakfast; he got us there in perfect time to because right after he pulled away the bus to Ravello was getting ready to leave. Ravello is a town that is famous for music festivals in the summer and is apparently where all the rich people live. However, since it was a Sunday in the off-season it was fairly quiet. Jordan and I spent some time wandering around the streets. Actually it was more like climbing up and down the streets because everything is so steep. But we found some really cool things and got some fun views. We also found a pottery shop that had some cute plates and so we each bought one, and I'm really excited about them! After getting some gelato we then caught the bus back down to Amalfi, spent some more time collecting rocks on the beach before grabbing some pizza and talking to a nice man while we waited for the bus.

We got back here and had a planning session for Vesuvius tomorrow with our "big brother," or "good friend," Pino. He really is the nicest man ever. After we went back to our room he had to call us back for some paper work or whatever and he brought us some strawberry sherbet something that was delicious! How cool is it that we got to eat bread and oil (we picked some up earlier) and sherbet on our bed in Italy! Tomorrow we're going to hike up Mt. Vesuvius and I'm so excited! Its going to be an epic adventure I'm sure.

Its Amalfi, nothing's impossible

Jordan and I have had a fabulous day in a fabulous place. We went to bed last night around 9:30 and didn't get up today until around 9:30, yeah I looove sleep. We had an amazing breakfast of a lemon pastry and chocolate pastry with orange juice and a cappuccino. The owner of our bed and breakfast, Pino, is probably the nicest, most hospitable person I've ever met. This morning when Jordan and I mentioned that we wanted to go to Amalfi, a 'nearby' town and asked him how to get there he gave us bus passes and then offered to take us there in his car (so we used the bus passes coming home).

I mentioned before that we are staying on cliff, which makes for incredible views but sort of scary, long drives. Furore (where we are) is only around 4 miles from Amalfi as the crow flies. But to drive there you have to go along these windy roads on the edge of the cliff. Pino is a great driver though so we had no problem getting there. He dropped us off in the city center and we ventured under an archway into the town square to start our day. We ducked into a few shops before realizing there was a massive cathedral in front of us so we climbed the billion stairs up to it and went in. There appeared to be a service going on but from where we were in the back we couldn't see what was going on so we kept going forward until we realized that we had just walked in on a wedding! Yeah, Jordan and I are the ultimate wedding crashers. We left the cathedral and bust out laughing and then continued our day.

Most of our day was spent shopping around, looking at all sorts of souvenirs and pottery and jewelery and all sorts of fun stuff. After a bit we went down to the beach and started looking around at the rocks. Jordan discovered a bit of green sea glass, and then some more and for the next hour or so we walked along a small stretch of beach collecting enough rocks and sea glass to fill our pockets. We later bought some decorative bottles that we're going to fill the rocks with, yay art project!

We stopped into a small, cute little restaurant for lunch/dinner. It was fabulous. The owner was such a charmer and we met this really nice couple from America and talked to them about traveling and the sorts. We were discussing the area and how everything is built up on cliffs and that is where the blog title comes from; the lady said she had talked to a hotel owner who said that and it really does say a lot about these people's lifestyle. I just can't imagine living like this, but somehow so many people do.

After lunch we bought some souvenirs, ate some gelato and then made our way back up to the B&B. We had started planning for the next week and went to ask Pino some questions and he is going to be such a great help! Its going to be a full week, but we're getting some rest and seeing some really great and different things. Tomorrow we're off to Rovello, a historic town where all the rich people live but first "you must sleep in," says Pino so that we will do.

A journey that began with pirates

Bonjourno from Italy! I'm not sure how we did it, but Jordan and I are currently sitting in our B&B in Furore Italy. We were overlooking the cliff that leads down to the water but its dark now and the wind is blowing really hard so we closed our blinds, but thats the end of the story, it all began at...

4 this morning. We took two different buses to Victoria station where we caught a train to Gatwick so we could get on our plane to Naples. All was going well, until it got better because we realized that our flight was full of pirates! Thats right, pirates. Around 30 men were dressed up as pirates. Some of them had fake parrots, some had hats with hair attached to them, and all of them were AWESOME. Seriously, it was the coolest flight ever. We figured after a morning of travel that we were well on our way..oohhh we were wrong.

We arrived in Naples around 12 and found a tourism information desk where we asked when the next bus to Salerno would be and when we found out it wasn't until 2:45 we decided to ask for an alternate route. The very nice Italian lady told us that we could take a bus to the train station in Naples and then we could get a train to Salerno, easy enough. On the bus we talked to some really nice Americans who are working in Naples and they helped us find the train station. We found the ticket counter, bought our ticket to Salerno and then wandered the train station looking for our gate. After a while we asked for help from some very nice Italian people who got us on the right train. The train ride was nice, I slept through most of it and when we got off in Salerno we were looking for a bus to Amalfi. Some very nice Italian travel agent pointed us in the right direction and we got on our bus to Amalfi. I didn't know much about Amalfi before coming here, and maybe you don't either so let me tell you that Amalfi is on a mountain, that leads to the water. Driving on a road on a cliff is a...different...experience but we got some fabulous views of the water. We got to Amalfi and went to purchase our tickets for our last bus to Furore, where our B&B is. The very nice Italian people on the bus told us that they would signal us when to get off and so that is how we made it here!

This place seems amazing. Right now the weather isn't so good (cold and windy) but Pino (the owner of the B&B and our new best friend) assures us that it will be sunny soon. But either way we are here, we are safe and we are warm! Its going to be a great spring break!!

:) Here we go again : )

Oh goodness, today has been a day.

I went to practicum this morning, the second time this week. I love being in the school but it makes for an earlier morning than I would like, but that's being a teacher for ya. My class was a bit rowdy in the morning and so when the teacher was gone in the afternoon and there was a supply (substitute) teacher they were crazy. It was a trying few hours, but a good experience to have as a future teacher. I came back and had a bit of down time before we ventured out to Picadilly Circus to see Mama Mia!!

We (Jordan, Amanda, Natalie, Kinsey and I) picked up our tickets and then went in search of dinner. We saw a Mexican place in the distance, but had trouble getting to it because we had to walk around a movie premiere! It was called The Damned United and we saw the red carpet and after dinner (which was fabulous) we saw some famous person being interviewed. We don't know who he was, but he was famous and that makes it cool.

The show itself was AMAZING! The energy was high and most of the characters were hilarious. There were a bit of technical difficulties that stopped the show in the middle of a song though; apparently the keyboard crashed or something. It was just so unexpected and comical watching the actresses stop and say "oh well, we're having some difficulties, be back in a minute," and run off stage. After that the rest of the show was really fun. Then in the end they did a little mini concert that was SO great. It really made the whole show.

After having such a fun evening we went to find some ice cream and then made some freinds with the French group on the tube : ) It was such a great time out, and some great bonding time before we all part ways for SPRING BREAK! We leave at 4 a.m. on Friday. Yeah, 4 in the morning...and I'm still super excited so I know its going to be good!! Hopefully we can update from the hotel in Italy, but if not look out for an epic blog post in a week. Talk to you all soon!

McElwee Cookies...In LONDON!

My mommy has been visiting this weekend and its been awesome. We were really busy and were exhausted every night, but I think that's this sign of a successful visit.

Friday I showed her around my practicum school and our class building and then we went to the British Museum. It was extra fun because Friday was "Red Nose Day," an event sponsored by an organization that raises money for families in Africa and asks people to "do something funny for money." And so many of the school groups wandering around had their hair spray painted red or were wearing clown wigs. We then spent the afternoon getting lost at Harrods, 5 floors of amazingness. I love shopping with my mommy, especially when we know that we can't actually buy anything 'cause we end up just wandering and having fun. We then met up with my cousin Kenny and spent some time catching up on family stuff, which is always fun. Then we had dinner with some of our friends, Greg and Amanda, before they showed us around the town at night..

Saturday we spent the day market shopping, running into all sorts of interesting characters and looking at all sorts of interesting trinkets. We again didn't buy anything (see Dad we can be good!) but it was fun to see everything. After a little rest at the hotel, we went to Piccadilly Circus for dinner at a little pizza shack and some serious souvenir shopping. After more wandering and picture taking we went back to the hotel with the hopes of watching some British T.V. but ended up tuning into NCIS and CSI: NY, gotta love the Brits.

We woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies and a warm sunshine...yay! It was perfect weather for us to go watch changing of the guards. It was pretty much the same as last time, and my mom really enjoyed it so that was fun. We spent the rest of the day walking. We walked by St. James' park down by Big Ben and Parliment and then we started walking by the Thames. We stopped and had lunch a little past the London Eye and then continued on too see a great view of St. Paul's, the Gherkin, London Brige, Tower Bridge and we finally ended at the Tower of London. It was a looong walk but a beautiful day and we had a great time talking and seeing the sights and everything.

Then tonight we thought it would be fun to make cookies in the flat. My mom wanted to do something for the flatmates, and I really missed cookies so we figured it was a grand idea! The cookies aren't exactly the same because brown sugar here is lighter, but they were still fabulous and everyone loved em which makes my mommy and me very happy : ) It was a great weekend, and I was sad to see her leave, but the time until I see her and the rest of my family and friends back home is going to FLY by. We leave for Spring Break this week!!!

Out of my comfort zone

This has been a pretty busy week with lots of school work starting to pile up. To be completely honest we’re still trying to catch up on sleep from Paris, but we’ve had some new experiences this week that I feel are worth writing about.
Thursday we went to a play called Over There for theater class; it was about twin brothers living in Germany during the Cold War. Their parents have divorced and one lives in East and one in West Germany. For the first bit of the play they must visit each other but then the wall fall and they live together for a bit. The storyline is simple enough, but the author of this play is famous for doing scandalous and over the top things so I was interested to see what happened. I was not disappointed. The actors (who were twins in real life) were phenomenal; they were funny and made the audience feel very comfortable. However, the play was just so…weird. One of the brothers has a child, played by a sponge and they enjoy talking to it in German and Russian. For most of the play the brothers are either wearing these ridiculous metallic like suits, either that or just their underwear. And in the final scene one of the brothers gets angry and covers himself in juice, chocolate sauce, flour and some canned cheese, I think. I thought the play was brilliant but it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in my life and I don’t know if I’ll ever see anything like it again, but I did enjoy it while I was there.

Then today my sociology class visited a Hindu Temple. It was INCREDIBLE. The temple itself is absolutely gorgeous; the marble pieces that make up the outside were carved in India then shipped here and reassembled. The detail on the outside is incredible, and it matches the detail of the woodwork on the inside. We went in, took of our shoes, and were ushered upstairs to the worship area of the temple. There were three of us that got there early and so we were by ourselves, and completely clueless. We walked up into a space with some columns where people were sitting around facing three doors. A security guard saw how lost we were and told us to sit because the doors would be opening soon. When they did we saw several statues ornately decorated and the people there started bowing down to them and performing their own rituals. It wasn’t until we went downstairs into the “Understanding Hinduism” exhibition that we understood what was going on. I’m still not sure I completely understand it, but the statues are religious idols that, when the temple opened, were blessed and a religious leader brought the spirit of God into them. So now Hindus come to the temple to show their devotion to God and to meditate etc. The exhibition was really great and taught me a lot about a religion I previously knew nothing about. Although being in the actual temple was a bit out of my comfort zone, I am so glad that we did it. Hinduism is a fascinating religion and I can’t wait to learn more about it now.

But now the weekend is here and so is my mommy!! That’s right my mom is here for a long weekend visit. We’re going to do the touristy things and hang out and have a great time. I’m so excited that she’s here : )

Paris...I fell in love again.

Quick synopsis of Paris since I"m sure this is going to be a long one: Paris was INCREDIBLE!We did so much in a short period of time and had so much fun. We saw lots of historical sites, beautiful views and ate the best food I've ever had in my life. We spent an evening trying to see as much as we could in the Louvre, climbed up the Eiffel Tower, stood in awe inside Notre Dame, climbed up a hill to the highest point in Paris, walked along the Champs de Elyse to hang out at the Arc de Triumph and finally took a boat cruise along the Seine. If you don't have 7 hours of your life to waste reading all this and want to look at pictures here's a link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006859&id=1401300102&l=9e6f4 The days were long, we are still sort of recovering from exhaustion, but it was all so worth it. It all started on...

Friday: We (Kinsey, Sam, Katie Mac and Katie) caught the Eurostar train early in the morning. Thats the train that goes under the chunnel and goes really really fast. It only took us a little over 2 hours, just enough time to come up with a game plan. We went with a tour group so when we arrived in Paris we first got on a bus and took a tour of the city. It was great to see lots of different things and get some tips from our tour guide. We checked into our hotel which was pretty nice before heading off on a walking tour of the Latin Quarter. It was a different part of Paris that I would have never thought of going to explore so that was fun. After the tour we rushed over the Louvre because apparently on the first Friday of the month it stays open late and under 26 year olds get in free. Awesome. I'm not a big art person, but I absolutely loved the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, and I don't care what other people say I think it was really cool to see. We saw tons of other pieces of art and history (Hammarabi's code is there...how cool!) but the highlight for me was Napoleon III"s apartments. They were so lavish and beautiful. After the Louvre we went back to the hotel to crash.

Saturday: Another very full day. We got up early, ate a giganticly awesome breakfast and then headed off to the Eiffel Tower. When my family was in Paris a few years ago we climbed up the tower instead of going on the lift, and when we looked at prices we decided that was the best plan for us (it cost us around 4 euro). We hiked up the 668 steps which was a serious workout, but it was so worth it. The view is more amazing than I could ever describe so I won't try....We hiked back down and walked over to the Hospital Invalid where Napoleon is buried. We didn't go in but the architecture of the building was awesome to look at. We then took the metro to Notre Dame (sidenote, I am so proud of us figuring out the metro system so fast and well). It is one of my favorite places in the world I've decided. It is a beautiful building, the inside is so peaceful even with all the people around. We left Notre Dame and headed off to Moulin Rouge for a walking tour of the red light district/art district/highest point in Paris. Again I was really glad we did this because it showed me parts of Paris I had never considered going to but absolutely loved. We ended up at a church at a top of a hill that had an amazing mosaic of Jesus with outstretched arms inside and a fabulous view of the city on the outside. By the time we were done here it was dinner time and we headed back into the city in search of french onion soup. We found a cute little cafe right outside the Eiffel Tower where the soup was ridiculously overpriced, but it was an experience that I think was worth it. After dinner we ran to the Eiffel Tower to be there on the hour so that we could see it sparkle!! It was so cool, almost as cool as the chocolate crepe I ate afterward. Life was good. We went back to the hotel and crashed; it was a great, but very long day.

Sunday: We decided that, since this was our last day and we had class on Monday, we would have a sort of chill day. We started off by walking down the Champs de Elyse. It was fun being on this really famous street and we probably would have spent more time wandering around the gardens but it was raining. A lot. Not like pouring down, but the kind of drizzling mist that gets you soaking wet all the way through. Usually this would have gotten me really down, but I was in Paris!! So there. We went into a couple of shops along the Champs de Elyse and poked around in an attempt to keep sort of dry (we failed). Eventually we reached the Arc de Triumph and hung out there for a bit, taking it all in. Then we headed down to the Siene where we were going to pick up a boat cruise. I was so excited about this because we were going to see more of Paris aaand we had planned on having a picnic with bread and cheese and chocolate. We found real baugettes, the long ones that stick out of the bag and we had cheese from the hotel breakfast and we found some cheap candy bars it was just generally awesome. The cruise was so relaxing and we got to see Paris from a different angle, it was a great way to end the trip.

Wow. If you stuck through reading all this, bravo. It really was an incredible weekend and we did so much and saw so much and came out alive. Now that I've been bit by the travel bug I can't wait for spring break! Italy better look out....

You take the good, you take the bad...

So its been an interesting week. Monday I went to practicum for the 2nd time. It was a great day, I'm really getting to know my class and feel like I'm helping out and I'm learning a lot so its really great. One of the students asked me if I went home at the end of the day and I told her, well yes kind of, first I have to go to school. Her eyes got really wide and she said, "so you do work and school? That must be a right long day for you." It was so cute, but so true, Mondays are quite long. Tuesday was a full day of class, the kind of day that makes me think I would enjoy study abroad much more if they took out the 'study' part. But that's okay I really do like my classes because we do a lot of interesting and different things, just not on Tuesdays. However, last night I went to see Avenue Q!! I thought it was funny that I came to London to see a musical about New York City, but it was incredible. It was funny, the singing was amazing, and I laughed a lot. I think my favorite part though was listening to the Brits trying to do American accents. It actually took me a few minutes to realize they were talking funny...which was interesting because I now hear American accents as different. But it was exciting nevertheless, a really fun evening. Today has been lazy. I've been trying to get all my homework done because this weekend I'M GOING TO PARIS! So excited!!

Wait...THIS is London too??

No class on Fridays + day trips = awesome. Last week someone mentioned Hampstead to Jordan as a really cool place that she should check out. She mentioned it to me and the two of us decided to head out there yesterday. Hampstead is a little area on the outskirts of London where all the rich people live and a lot of famous writers/artists used to live. It also has a GIGANTIC natural park called Hampstead Heath where you can climb this massive hill, Parliament Hill, and get amazing views of the London skyline. What makes this place even more exciting is how easy it is to get there. We didn’t have to buy bus or train tickets because, even though it is on the fringes of London, it’s still in our zone on the tube.

Our plan was to get there, find a place to grab lunch before heading up the big hill to eat a picnic lunch overlooking the city. We got off the tube and walked around a bit before finding a bagel sandwich place for lunch. Then, using our general idea of where we wanted to go and our sense of direction we started walking up a hill. Have I mentioned that I have a horrible sense of direction? Jordan and I ended up hiking through some woods before realizing we were wrong and heading toward a road. We then re-oriented ourselves and started walking down a path by a main road that bordered the park. The thing about this park is that it is massive so we could have walked along it for an hour before realizing exactly where we needed to be; which is exactly what we did. Eventually we found some little lakes to stop and eat our lunch by and the new kept venturing forward in our now epic search for Parliament Hill. We finally found a map that pointed us in the right direction and climbed the hill.

All the mess ups and long walks were worth it when we finally got to the top, it was gorgeous. It was so weird to be looking at this mass of buildings that we live in and still be technically in the city of London. We spent some time sitting on the hill, smelling the clean air and grass (a smell I didn’t realize I missed) feeling the sun and admiring the view. We then slowly wandered back down and into the town where we poked around in a few little shops before eating dinner at this really nice local pub.

It was a long day that probably could have been shorter if Jordan and I had known better what we were doing and where we were going, but then we probably would have missed out on finding the small ponds and getting to watch some dogs jump in and go swimming. We wouldn’t have passed by as many cool houses or found that amazing climbing tree in the middle of a field. We found our fabulous view eventually and, I think, were able to appreciate it that much more because of all the work we put into it.

"What is this place, heaven?"

I feel like I've been updating my blog a lot recently, which might have something to do with the fact that there is actually a lot of school work to be done and this is an amazing procrastination tool...so thank you for participating in the putting off of real work.

Today those of us who don't have art used our free afternoon to go to the most amazing place on the planet: a 6 story toy store called Hamley's. It has a floor for interactive toys, stuffed animals, a girl floor, a boy floor, a floor for preschool/ hobbies and there is even a restaurant on top. It was so much fun to run around and see all our old favorite toys and to get to play like kids! No lie, 5 college students sat around the leggo table for a good 20 minutes trying to build the best house. I can't wait to go back!

Then this afternoon I got some good news from back home, I'm going to be an Orientation Leader next year! OL's are in charge of a group of new students during their orientation. They fulfill this job by being crazy excited all the time. I think I'm up for the job : )

Tonight we went to see the play "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" at the National Theater. It was an interesting play with incredible music and some cool dancing. But what got everyone really excited was the fact that Alan Rickman aka Snape aka the guy that cheats on his wife in Love Actually was there. Some people talked to him afterward and said hearing his voice was really really cool.

So thats London right now, nothing too exciting. How goes America blog readers?

Pancake Day! (so epic it deserves another post)

Why have I not heard of this holiday before?? Apparently people in the states celebrate the gloriousness that is pancake day but I've never partaken until this year. In case you are also in the dark about the best holiday of the year, people eat pancakes the day before Ash Wednesday as a sort of feast before the fast of lent (and yes I do know that we celebrate Mardi Gras back home, but apparently here they do it with pancakes). Anywho, last week I saw a display in the grocery story advertising pancake day and since then the flat has been abuzz in excitement.

Today was the big day. All day I was looking forward to not only eating the pancakes but making them because I really do love to cook. We have 8 people in our flat and we had invited some other people to join in the fun and so there were a lot of hungry people to feed. I started to do the pancakes and some of my flatmates came in and were like, "we have some potatoes, we could cut those up and make some hash browns." and then another flat mate decided she wanted eggs so she ran to the small grocery right down the road and bought some eggs to scramble up. In the end we used two boxes of bisquick, half a dozen eggs and about 4 potatoes. The whole ordeal took about 2 1/2 hours to cook, eat and clean, but it was glorious. I haven't had that much fun in the kitchen in a while. It was so awesome to have everyone come together under the great banner of pancake love. And that is why it was so epic to blog about.

The end of pancake day 2009. Until 2010 : )

How do you count to five in America?

I spent my first day in the British school yesterday and absolutely loved it. I am at Winton Primary school which is a few blocks away from Kings Cross Station. It is a small school and so they have mixed grade classes. I am in a year 3/4 class which is equal to our 3rd or 4th grade. My teacher, Ms. Collins, is from America but she's been in London for six or seven years so I'm really excited to see how that effects her teaching style.

My day started off with a tour from one of the students in my class. He was incredibly sweet and eager to introduce me to every teacher in the building. All the teachers were really friendly and one even asked me to re-introduce myself to the class so they could guess where I was from and they came up with Australia which made me laugh. After the tour we went back to the classroom just in time for an assembly. The whole school came together to recognize certain classes for having good attendance etc. It was at this point I realized just how small the school really is because all the teachers knew all the students and vice versa which creates a nice community feel.

The first day of practicums always has the potential to be awkward because you never know what the teacher expects of you so I was so happy when my teacher already had groups in mind for me to work with and had other jobs for me to do. She had also planned on giving me some time to talk to the children about America which was the most fun part of the day for me because they asked me a billion funny questions. They wanted to know about my family and when I told them I had a brother they wanted to know all about him. They asked if I knew any movie stars, if I could see the beach from my house. Trying to explain thanksgiving to British children is also a fun experience. My favorite questions came from a girl who was just being silly and really wanted to hear me talk so she asked how we counted to 5 in America and if our toilets were on the floor

Other than that the school day was pretty similar to ours back home. There was a literacy lesson, a math lesson, during lunch we ate in the teacher's lounge, then they had time for silent reading. Oh and then came their science/technology lesson. The class has been doing a unit on the rainforest and had decided to make a digital presentation on preserving the rainforests etc. and are going to send it to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Obama (they also didn't understand why I couldn't give it to Obama, they assumed I had met him). I think this is a really cool project that I can't wait to watch unfold over the next few weeks.

So it was a good first day and I'm really excited to go back. I also have uploaded pictures from Canterbury this past weekend if you're interested in checking them out.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005672&id=1401300102&l=d1e1e

Our own Canterbury Tales

Our first day trip away from London was a success! I really like this whole day trip idea because it takes very little planning, isn’t expensive, and there is so much to see right outside of London. Yesterday a group of seven of us went to Canterbury for the day. I had heard that the cathedral there was beautiful and of course wanted to re-live my English class from senior year when we read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but mostly I just wanted to do something different this weekend.

The trip to Canterbury takes about two hours, which was the perfect time for a nap since our bus left at 8:30. When we first got off the bus and started walking towards the cathedral we found ourselves in a strip mall sort of place. It wasn’t too crowded, but I thought it was interesting to see all the modern stores with a 12th century cathedral looming in the background. We first went to the Roman museum which presented a plethora of artifacts and showed reconstructions of what Canterbury would have looked like during Roman times. It was a nice museum, worth the 2 £ we paid for it but not much more. After that we wandered toward a walkway that would lead us to an old castle. We couldn’t tell if the walkway was actually the old Roman wall or just a replica of it, but either way it provided us with a nice view of the city.

When you see pictures of the castle at Canterbury it doesn’t look like much, it’s just a large stone structure that you can go inside and look around in. However, I thought it was so cool to think about what this castle meant way back when. It was a fortress; you could see a window at the top of what used to be stairs and I think its fun to imagine people running up the steps and shooting at attackers. After taking plenty of fun castle pictures, our group started to head back towards the city in preparation to see the cathedral. To get back to the city we had to walk through this gorgeous park that had a path lined with huge trees, so it was tough. We ate lunch, like good ‘ol Americans, at Subway because we needed something cheap and fast.

Before coming to Canterbury someone told me that if Thomas Beckett, who was killed there in the 1100’s, woke up today he would still recognize this cathedral. It was breathtaking. I walked around the inside with my mouth open looking up at the gigantic ceiling, admiring the stained glass and just generally feeling overwhelmed. It’s hard to describe the feeling I get when I’m in large places of worship like this, but there’s something incredible about knowing that you have come to a place that millions of other people have come to with the same purpose or direction. We left the cathedral and got lost around the grounds. I’m not even sure what all we saw but it seemed like every time we turned a corner there was another beautiful structure or garden or something to look at.

After leaving the Cathedral we went to the Canterbury Tales visitor attraction. It was an interesting place, again kind of like Disney World but I thought it was really fun. You receive an audio tour that directs you through different rooms which follow the story of the Canterbury Tales. I thought it was done very well and presented in a way that would interest people in a classic story (the teacher in me was I guess the most excited).

We did some more wandering, some shopping, and then ate at a pub where I had fish and chips for the first time! I actually ate most of my fish and of course devoured the chips. Mmm London food. Since everything in Canterbury closes at 5 and our bus didn’t leave until 8:30 we had some time to kill before our bus left so we went back to take some pictures of the Cathedral at night before hanging out at the bus stop for a bit. Overall it was a long, but very fun day.

The eastern hemisphere will never be the same

So we’ve finished another week of classes, except with the way the scheduling works out here it’s been more like 2 days of classes, and really not much time in a classroom. Except for Tuesdays, in which I spend my entire day at school, I don’t actually have much literal class time but will end up doing a lot of things around London that relate to the class material, which isn’t a bad way to learn if you ask me.

I had a lazy Wednesday morning hanging around with my flatmates before they left to spend four hours in an art gallery (better them than me) and I went Thames walking with my group. One of my classes focuses on the Thames and its influence on London and one of our assignments is to complete several walks along the Thames, focusing on a specific topic (ours is health and the Thames) some but just generally documenting what we see. I’ve really enjoyed the 2 walks we have done because it’s been a great time to get out of our flats and just wander with a purpose, something I’m finding I love. Our walk this past week was along a section of the Thames that is in Chelsea, so I was particularly excited to be in my neighborhood. It actually is very cute with some amazing shopping that I will probably drag some of my flat mates to at some point.

On Thursday our GST class took our first “field trip” to Greenwich, the home of the prime meridian. There are several ways to get to Greenwich and for our first trip we took the foot path…under the Thames. Yeah, we walked under a river. Greenwich was really fun, once I got over the walking under the river thing; we walked up the steepest hill ever to get to the Royal Observatory where they have the prime meridian marked. I did the obligatory standing in both hemispheres thing before we moved on to walk through a park and down the hill towards some museums. We had to read a book about discovering longitude and so seeing all the sights that I’ve read about was really cool, and Greenwich is a fun town to spend a morning in. That evening a few of us finally gave in and went out for some American food. It sounds so lame, but going to T.G.I. Fridays was such an exciting outing. And it was an outing; the service here is definitely different from back home, but it was really nice to hang out at the end of the week and eat some good food.

Tomorrow I’m going with a couple of people to Canterbury for the day, hopefully we will have many tales to tell (haha, Ms. Ferell).

Walking In London

Nothing too exciting has been going on the past few days. We had a lazy Sunday hanging around the flat that provided some much needed chill time. However we did start researching Paris trips and luckily found one done through a group that was reasonably priced and has openings. So on Monday the five of us that are going (Kinsey, Katie, Katie, Sam and me) went to the tour company and booked our trip. We're going March 6-8 and can't be more excited, so Paris better look out!

After we booked our trip and did some grocery shopping I wanted to go and find my practicum school (as part of our program we are assigned to a London school and spend some time there observing etc.) As many of you know, I'm not that good with maps but since we've been here I've learned that knowing how to read a map is sort of a necessity so its something I've been working on. Anyways, it was a nice day and I had some free time so I looked at the map (with some help from my friend Zane) and figured that it wouldn't be all that hard to walk. I started off feeling good; I had my iPod in and was looking forward to some alone time. But one hour later I still felt no closer to where I needed to be than when we started, and my free time was dwindling. I ended up making it very close to my school (a few streets down and I would have been there) but turned around to get back to our classroom building in time for our education seminar. While I didn't actually find my school it was a very nice walk; I saw Regents Park, found some really cool looking restaurants, walked right past King's Cross Station (I was tempted to go to Hogwarts, but decided to leave that for another day) and I had a pleasant afternoon to myself.

But other than that we've just been settling in to a routine with classes. Last night Zane and I wanted to try walking from our classroom building to our flats (after my previous walking adventure I"m not sure why I did this) and it took us an hour, so we're not going to be doing that anymore. I made tacos for dinner and then a bunch of us watched "She's the Man" to review Shakespeare's "12th Night" for our theater class today. Oh yeah and I also uploaded some pictures from this weekend
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004792&id=1401300102&l=eb925 theres the link if you wanna check em out.

A little bit of pomp and circumstance

One of the great things about our program here is that there are no classes on Friday, meaning we can make the most of our weekends.

Friday a group of us decided to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We had been told of a really good place to see it, at a lamp post across the street from the gates to the palace, and so we all gathered around our lamp and waited. It was a beautiful day to be standing outside, a little cold, but the sun was shining on us for the first time in several days and we had a good time. While we were waiting we noticed that the Queen’s flag was flying on top of the palace, meaning she was there, which made me a little giddy. The actual ceremony was pretty cool, we saw a band and the guard and the horse guard and there were some people in carriages that went in the palace gates, and then back out again. We listened to the two bands playing for a while and then after the guard processed out we ran over to the gates to take some close up pictures of the palace and the guards. I’m really glad that we went, but I consider this more of our ‘dry run’ so we can come back in the spring when the guards are in their red coats (in the winter they put a grey one over the red ones).

Yesterday we spent our Valentine’s Day at the Tower of London, listening to stories of blood and gore; it was awesome. I didn’t expect the whole complex to be as big as it was, but it was a lot of fun exploring the different towers and seeing the place where Henry VII executed his wives, learning about weaponry from medieval times and oh yeah, seeing the crown jewels. As Natalie and I were walking through the Disney World like line, watching video clips of different coronations and processions of royalty I got really excited for what we were going to see. It was not a disappointment. It’s hard to imagine just how much meaning and significance these beautiful and ornate pieces mean to the British Monarchy. I tried to compare them to something we have in the U.S. and came up with nothing, making it that much more exciting I guess.

Over the past few days I’ve been looking a lot more at the British culture (probably because my classes have started and that’s what we do) and have found it to be so interesting and fun and exciting; but the part that I think I love the most is how deep the traditions are. The changing of the guard has been happening for years and years in the same way that we saw it, and it will be happening like that for years to come. That, to me, is a really cool part of being in London and makes me so excited to be here for the next few months.

We survived...

...One week in London. Okay technically one week ago was yesterday but we were so jetlagged then no one knew what was what and today marks the end of our first week of classes. Its been a crazy week that seemed to have lasted an eternity, which I have a feeling I'm going to appreciate much more when it comes time to leave. But I've done so much in this week that I can't wait for the rest of the semester.

Last night we went to our first play for the theater class, Spring Awakening (for all you Elon theater buffs out there this is the play that Matt Shingledecker is doing in America). It was INCREDIBLE. The subject matter is a little intense and borders on inappropriate at times, but the music was amazing and the cast did such a great job of evoking very powerful emotions. It probably helps that we were sitting in the second row, but the whole experience reminded me of why I love theater so much. It takes you to a different world and lets you stay there and see what happens both on the stage and in your own head in a way that leaves me breathless sometimes.

Today we went to the British Museum for our GST class with the assignment to find a section of the museum that interested our group. We planned on wandering towards the Asian section but then detoured through the African section and somehow found ourselves going down some stairs to an African art gallery. The first piece of art we saw was actually something that I studied over Winter Term in my fine arts class. It was really exciting to see this piece of work in real life that I already knew so much about and had seen in pictures. Our group wandered around the museum just long enough to realize that we're going to have to spend so much more time there if we want to really see things; good thing we have some time.

Tomorrow we're going to go see the changing of the guards from our supposed fabulous viewing place at the lamp (our tour guide on the first day pointed out a great place to see it). Then this weekend I'm going to try to find my assigned practicum school, maybe explore some other places and then the biggest adventure yet: LAUNDRY! wish me luck : )

Begginings of Classes

We started classes today, and as dorky as it is, I was so excited. The schedule here is very different than my one at Elon, though. Instead of rolling out of bed 30 minutes before class starts and wandering over slowly, we left our flat an hour before our first class this morning and only go there a few minutes early. Our GST (General Studies) Seminar was first. This class is taught by the professor that came with us from Elon and it focuses on the Thames. We’re going to be doing some walks along the Thames, taking pictures and documenting different aspects of the Thames. We’ll also be visiting Greenwich a few times and I’m excited to stand on the GMT!

Before my next class I had around a 2 hour break so we hung out in an empty classroom upstairs. It works out well because there is free internet (which we don’t have a the flats, we have a certain allotment of minutes each week). I did sort of miss the ability to go back to my room and take a quick nap or just have some time away between classes, but when the weather is nicer I’ll use this time to sit in the park outside or head down to the British Museum. The next class was London Theater, which I was the most excited about before coming here. We’re going to see 9 shows throughout the semester, tomorrow is Spring Awakening and next week is 12th Night. I haven’t heard of any of the rest of them, but I think it’s going to be so much fun to see lots of different types of plays. My final class of the day was Diversity in Action in London, a sociology class that is going to be interesting to say the least. Part of this class involves field trips where I’m pretty sure we’re going to just wander around London with some direction and watch people. I love people watching and I love London so it’ll be fun.

After class we had to take an alternate route home because the Central Line was stopped or delayed or something, so we walked a few blocks, and then a few blocks more until we found a bus to take us home. I love little adventures like this because I keep proving to myself that I can survive and adapt in a city that I just met.

Doin the tourist thing

The past few days have been busy busy. We did a bus tour of the city on Friday and saw so much, taking lots of notes about places we wanted to go back to. We got off the bus around the corner from Buckingham Palace and the tour guide started running so we could get there in time for the procession of the horse guard; not as cool as the official of the changing of the guard, but it was neat to see all the soldiers in their uniforms riding by on the horses. The guide gave us some tips on the best place to see the changing of the guard so I'm now really excited to see that. Later that afternoon we had a walking tour of our neighborhood, Little Venice. It is absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait until its warm and I can just wander down by the canal or walk around the beautiful houses. Elon really does take care of us!

Saturday we took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the mideveal world was really cool, and we had some fun being guided by Elias, our very experienced and entertaining friend. The drive to Bath was beautiful because of all the snow and the rolling hills. We got to Bath and took a tour of the old Roman Baths which was also pretty cool. I actually understood a bunch of stuff because of Latin and Roman history. Then we had another walking tour of Bath, which I didn't expect to be as fun as it was. It really is a cute little town with some amazing architecture. Then we had some free time to wander around before heading home.

Since we had napped on the way back from Bath, so a few of us decided to go and see London at night. We took the tube out to Big Ben and there it was, right as we stepped out of the station. It was so massive and looked incredible lit up. We walked around there for a bit before heading over towards Buckingham Palace. If you ever want to have some quality time alone at the palace, Saturday night is the time to go. There was barely anyone there, which was fun for us because we were able to shamelessly take touristy pictures.

Today we got up late, hung out around the flat before heading out to Spiddlefield's market, a big, cheap market. We poked around there, looking at scarves, funky clothes, and were almost tempted by some brownies. I haven't been to many markets in my life, but I really liked this one because people weren't hounding you to come look at their stuff or giving you dirty looks if you didn't buy anything. While I came away empty handed, it was necessary to see what they have for our future trips.

I've absolutely loved getting to know the city over the past few days. I love how busy everything is, and that there is always a billion things to do. But its also been great hanging out in the flat, getting to really know my flatmates and other people in the program. Classes start Tuesday...exciting.

Here's a link to some pictures from our first few adventures... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003596&l=9d22e&id=1401300102

Getting lost is fun!

Well today has been quite productive. We had our academic orientation at the Anglo American building (where we take classes), which is right beside the British Museum, how awesome is that. After that Jordan, Laura and I decided to check out Primark, a store that is basically a London department store. I bought a really cute bag and we shopped around a bit, kind of falling in love. Then we ran back to the flats and dropped some stuff off before heading off to do some grocery shopping…which is where our adventure begins.

There is a small grocery store right down the street from our flats, but earlier on our way to our class building we saw a bigger chain grocery that we wanted to check out. Jordan and I made our lists and headed there. We got plenty of food, put it in our new big bags and headed back to the tube. Well, the tube was PACKED due to electrical problems on the central line and the fact that it was 6 p.m. When we got off we were kind of confused and forgot that we had to change lines and so we left the station, figuring we could just turn around and get back on. WRONG. There were so many people trying to get through two little entrances it was ridiculous. No problem, we decided we’d take a bus. We got on, found seats up top and rode. We thought that we heard our stop and made our way down to the bottom to get off. Jordan managed to jump off, I did not. We’re pretty smart cookies though, because she started to follow the bus and at the next stop (which was about a block away) I got off and started to walk back towards her. We met up and decided that the stop we got off at was not the right one, but it was close so we could find our way back eventually. We walked, we pulled out the map, walked some more, pulled out the map and somehow found a tube stop that took us home.

Getting lost in London was one of the best experiences I could’ve had. I’m not good with maps or anything like that, but I’m really getting the hang of the tube and so I’m sure the buses will come fairly easily as well. After our bus tour tomorrow I’m sure I’ll feel even more comfortable with the city.